"shooting from the hip if I see you..."
The enigmatic DOGDAD on his eponymous 2022 album is full of potent, unbridled amounts of inner angst and diversionary attacks of sound that feels gloriously aggressive. Listen to the smashed tom tom beat of "Into The Waves" with off beat guitar strikes on one hand and bending discordant other guitar sound on the other and you feel like you have stepped into a Clockwork Orange-ian world of hard people with sideways stares. The intensity of this first track and especially DOGDAD's spit in your face vocal yelp is crazy good. The second song, "UMCE" with the punk driven bass throttle and staccato lead guitar, "I will be heard and if not I will be loud enough" is the kind of mosh-worthy pummel that will cause a bloody lip. The third track "Know Me Better" (and the original) subject of this review shakes out in less punk ways while still feeling incredibly hard edged but in a more divergent way. DOGDAD's vocal aesthetic here is a wee bit less strident than the album's opening tracks and there is a wonderful shifting sound here. While the beats pound away at the same clip, DOGDAD plays with the guitar shapes that bring different sonic patinas down giving us dashes of late 70's proto punk visions, 80's new wave and current massive garage rock swims. "Caroline" feels more dreamy with a lovely vocal presence with less bulging veins in the neck.
We are at the midpoint of the album and "Smoking Gun" shifts to a sort of emo punk mode. I hate to even say emo because this is far from emo but there is a hard jangle pop presence and I thought a bit of 90's Goth pop / punk and maybe a collision of The Drums and the very first iteration of the Cure (78). DOGDAD's vocal aesthetic feels like more of a strident croon and swoony. Now "Cut / 20 minutes" might be the most curious track and feels incredibly improvisational, even dadaistic (even if it is not). It manages to feel progressive in it's multi-shaped persona. I hope it is improvised. It is explosively freeing and the vocal aesthetic blends tenderness, melancholia, and doses of the aforementioned angst.
The punk manifesto-esque "Looks Like Hell" and the sideways feral punk-esque "Waste Time" with angular lead shapes, chunky bloody finger chords are delightfully cool and highlight DOGDAD's brilliant production head. This is where I pull the curtain back a bit. DOGDAD might of been a band at one point (things are sketchy) but here, on this project, is just one talented singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, DIY producer. With the exception of the drums that he programs, he plays everything and is somehow able to layer up these songs without doing too much. Not that these compositions aren't complex, they are but they feel like they have a sparse sound. In all these songs and "Plastic Hearts" is a prime example, his exquisite lead work is presented as rhythmic patterns that give the pieces intricate engines of movement more than they are self indulgent lead guitar breaks. The last track, "Tracing Lines" might depart the most from the rest of the songs on "DOGDAD", it shows a broader indie rock side, it might be the albums sonic cigarette break, more mellow but still evocative and quite cinematic. It is a great way to end such a diverse and potent album.
-Robb Donker Curtius
* * *
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NpWPFxZN4s
* * *
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NpWPFxZN4s
DOGDAD is a diverse alt rock, indie rock, punk influenced artful singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist
* * *
DOGDAD, Indie Rock, Garage Rock, Alternative Rock, punk driven, guitar driven, band, musician, singer-songwriter, diy producer, "Know Me Better", taste the blood, album "Dogdad",
No comments:
Post a Comment